China Watch: Text Outrage, Riveting Murder Trial, Privacy Worries

A list of what The Wall Street Journal’s reporters in China are reading and watching online. (NOTE: WSJ has not verified these items and doesn’t vouch for their accuracy.)

From the Chinese-language press:

* Your spam text messages are brought to you by China Telecom. That’s the latest news from a special CCTV program—broadcast in honor of International Day for Consumer’s Rights and Interests—which reported that the state-owned telecommunications company has been helping third-party businesses direct spam text messages to users’ phones. According to one Hubei China Telecom manager quoted in the report, “In one month, you can send 100 million [messages], there’s no restriction. You can send as many as you’re able.” China Telecom also happens to be a major provider of anti-spam technologies to customers tired of paying to receive such ads, CCTV reports. [Original article in Chinese.]

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* The story of a Shenzhen man currently on trial for killing his invalid wife “out of love” has captivated Chinese audiences, igniting a debate over the characters and moral questions involved. On Feb. 16, 2009, Wen Yu Zhang killed his wife—who had entered the hospital after fainting a week prior—by taking out her respirator after learning that her condition was unlikely to improve. Though nurses and doctors at the time tried to stop him, Mr. Wen threw himself onto his wife’s body, saying that she was in too much pain and it was time to stop medical treatment. After Mr. Wen was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by the court, the mother of his deceased wife applied to appeal that verdict, saying such a punishment was too light. The case has continued to move through the courts, with prosecutors on Wednesday claiming that Mr. Wen had an affair, reports the state-run Guangzhou Daily, in a courtroom drama that has kept Chinese Internet users riveted all week. [Original article in Chinese.]

* Fears over poor safeguarding of private information received fresh fuel yesterday, as a CCTV expose reported that employees at the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have allegedly used intermediary companies to sell customers’ private information. These sorts of cases are severely hurting the reputation of banking industry, the report notes, as victims affected can lose serious sums of money—even their life’s savings. Similar to countries overseas, China does have private information protection laws—“however, these can’t prevent the leakages of customer information,” the report said. [Original article in Chinese]

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